Coke: It wasn't the way I expected it to finish up, either'

Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Phil Coke gave up three earned runs in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game against the White Sox, the last two on a monster home run by Adam Dunn.
CARLOS OSORIO — The Associated Press

DETROIT >> To say the ninth inning did not go as planned might be a tad of an understatement.

The Detroit Tigers entered Tuesday’s ninth inning with a five-run lead, and ended up in an unexpected save situation, largely because of an “incidental two-seamer.”

The slider that was supposed to run away from White Sox designated hitter Adam Dunn backed up over the plate, and the burly White Sox designated hitter deposited it in the right-field seats, making it a two-run game all of a sudden.

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Instead of breaking, it ran right back into Dunn’s happy zone.

“That’s what Alex (Avila, the catcher) said. It came back to him. It was like I threw an incidental two-seamer,” Tigers reliever Phil Coke said.

Don’t you mean ‘accidental?’

“No, it was an incident, because he hit that a long way. Somebody almost died,” Coke joked. “There was an incident in the outfield seats.”

The left-hander had started the inning with two quick outs, and appeared to be wrapping up a nice 8-3 win, when the inning went off the rails.

He tried to take something off a change-up to Marcus Semien, who reached out and poked it into the left-field corner for a double.

“The one to Semien could’ve been lower. He caught it at the right spot. That’s all you can say about it. He hit it at the right contact point for him,” Coke said. “A fraction of a second longer, and he probably swings and misses.”

Paul Konerko reached out and slapped a single off a sinker, getting it just as it began to sink, driving in Semien.

Coke still could’ve closed it out with no real harm done, getting ahead of Dunn 0-2 with a pair of called strikes.

Then he threw the slider that Avila called for.

“ I was thinking something different, and Alex made the call, and I went ‘Well, it worked to the other lefties I faced.’ I was pretty good with throwing it. Threw it with conviction, just didn’t get the movement on it that I was expecting,” Coke said.

“It was supposed to be away from him, and I didn’t get my fingers on top of the ball on the release. ...

“I know that not just on the way it felt coming out of my hand, but I actually went and I looked at it right away. It started to get that movement that I wanted, but it came back to him at the last minute. Because I didn’t get on top of the ball. If I get on top of the ball, he either fouls it off or probably knocks it into left for a knock, I don’t know.

“Who’s to say? But it didn’t do what it was supposed to do.”

Dunn did what he was supposed to do, and smashed the ball into the seats.

Coke had gotten the better of Dunn in most of their previous meetings, striking him out in four of six at-bats.

“Somebody almost died. Seriously,” Coke said. “No, I’m being totally honest, because he tattooed that ball. He totally did. And he’s probably been itching to do that to me for a long time. The fact that he finally got me? Hey, he got me. Pitch didn’t do what I wanted it to, and that’s on me. But he’s still a phenomenal hitter, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do.”

So is it a case where Coke pitched better than the results indicate?

“I don’t know that that’s fair to say, because it doesn’t matter what I say. The results are the results, and people are going to judge the way they judge, so it doesn’t matter what I say,” he said.

“I mean, I understand. I totally understand. It wasn’t the way I expected it to finish up, either.